‘Sixth sense’ makes lovey-dovey couples’ brains work in sync

Always wondered how your partner could read your mind? Well, this is not just a figment of your imagination, for scientists have now found that some couples are so in tune that their brains begin to work in sync.

The extraordinary finding emerged from an analysis of brain activity in patients and counsellors in therapy sessions.

Psychologists have long known that some couples learn to think like each other, allowing them to 'know' what their partner is thinking or about to say.

But the new study goes further by looking into the activity of the nervous system.

Dr Trisha Stratford in Sydney's University of Technology studied the brain and heartbeats of 30 volunteers during counselling sessions.

She identified a crucial moment when the counsellor and patient's brains started to work in sync, in an 'altered state'.

"When this happens we can read each other's brains and bodies at a deeper level, a sixth sense," the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

"During the 'altered state, the part of each person's brain that controls the nervous system began to beat together."

Researchers found identical patterns of brain activity in volunteers who had become so close that they were 'physiologically aligned', and pointed towards the existence of a 'sixth sense'.

The research indicated that couples reached a state in which their nervous systems were ticking over in harmony, helping them to know each other's thoughts and emotions.